Celebrating Craig

On Friday, March 15 the swing community will come together to honor Craig Hutchinson -- a quiet, humble man with incredible skill and influence in the swing dance community. My first east- and west-coast swing lessons were with Hutch about 20 years ago. To learn more about Craig, visit http://www.hutchmemorial.com/

It will be quite a unique event with dancers from the west- and east-coast, Lindy, Carolina Shag, DC Hand Dance, and Hustle from near and far dancing together at the Spanish Ballroom.

I found some fun photos of Craig in the WSDC archives.

The first was taken in February 1984. Craig and Lucy were teaching the pre-dance lesson. Look at how many people are in the room!

The second is one of my favorites. Craig is dancing with Anne Townsend, founder of WSDC. All of the photos with Craig in the blue shirt, as well as the shot of he and Lucy dancing, were taken in 1991 at WSDC's Savoy Swings Again dance camp.

Another favorite is the photo of Craig and Lucy's profiles. We actually have several like this. Also taken at Savoy, Craig became the student when he wasn't teaching -- always honing his skills.

And the last is as close to a smile as I'd ever seen on Craig's face.

Shame on Me!

I made two errors in a recent email about the Legends Night event.

1. The event date is Saturday, May 3.

2. I misspelled Dan Hovey's name. And Dan has had quite a career.

After attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, he played with Root Boy Slim and Jr. Cline and the Recliners. He also held the guitar chair at the National Theater for a while, playing “Sweet Charity” and “Cats”. He moved to New York City in 1989 where he stayed for 15 years. He's worked with such artists as; Don Byron (Don Byron Plays the Music of Mickey Katz), Eric Anderson, Jim Allen, Ben E. King, Roscoe Gordon (Teeny Weeny Bit of Your Love) as well as his own bands. In 1999 he appeared on a Broadway stage about 470 times in the show “Swing!” where he was featured playing guitar and lap steel. The run lasted 14 months, and when it was over he played in other shows including Full Monte, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Aida, and Mamma Mia!

He decided it was time to return to his roots in Washington, DC when the live music venues started closing in NYC. He leads and/or plays with several bands in the area -- Dan Hovey & Bad Daddy!, GHz (gigahertz), Mary Ann Redmond, and hosts a monthly show at JVs called Lord of the Strings.

Birth of Rock and Roll

On Saturday night, May 3, it will be a night of legendary music played by a few of DC’s legendary musicians – Billy Hancock, Daryl Davis, Ron Hollway, and Billy’s band members – Steve Wolf, Barry Hart, and Dan Hovey.

When I talked to Billy about this event, he asked me if I remembered those movies with Bill Haley and the Comets, or Elvis’ concerts where the dancers and audience are going wild.

Here's what you can expect – music from the birth of Rock and Roll – Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins.




Just who is Billy Hancock? Look at the list of people this Rockabilly Hall of Famer has played with!

Hancock has shared the stage over the last 40 years with the likes of Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, The Clovers, Link Wray, The Orioles, Big Joe Turner, jazz coronetist/trumpeter Ed Polcer, Janis Joplin (Big Brother & the Holding Company), guitar pioneer Les Paul, American Folk Rock Legend Sleepy LaBeef, Jump Blues singer/sax player Bull Moose Jackson, singer/pianist Amos Milburn, rockabilly singer Jack Scott, Robert Gordon, The New York Dolls, guitar genius Danny Gatton, Doug Salm, NRBQ, Arthur Big Boy Crudup (wrote first & many more of Elvis's songs), Waylon Jennings, Rick Nelson, The Blasters, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Rockabilly pioneer Charlie Feathers, Jazz trumpeter Buck Clayton, Arlen Roth, Delta Blues singer Sleepy John Estes, Blues singer Johnny Shines, Emmy Lou Harris, Tracy Nelson & Mother Earth, The Byrds, The Lovin Spoonful, instrumental 60's surf group The Ventures, Canned Heat, Graham Parson & the Flying Burrito Bros., The James Gang, The Guess Who, Arrowsmith, The Starland Vocal Band, and Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, just to name a few.

While many of our dancers know Daryl Davis the musician...Did you know he's also an author, actor, and the first person that Chuck Berry calls when he's playing in town? I've seen Daryl at the Arena Stage and was caught by surprise when I saw him on HBO's "The Wire."

Sizzle!

It's gonna be a hot and spicy night in the ballroom on March 1st with the Red Stick Ramblers!

Talk about spicy -- check out Linzay Young’s world famous recipe for Sauce Piquant. It’ll knock your socks off…Talk about a REAL triple threat--Voice, violin, and vittles!

Linzay Young’s “Turtle Sauce Piquante”
(Spicy Gravy)
feeds 6-8 depending on how hungry they are


Note: This dish is prepared best in a #8 or #10 cast iron pot or dutch oven. Cooking it in any other vessel may result in an inferior dining experience.

INGREDIENTS:
5-6 lbs Cleaned turtle meat*, Cut into 2 inch cubes
2 or 3 large yellow or white onions, chopped
2 green bell-peppers, 2 red/orange bell-peppers, chopped
half a head of garlic, minced
2 - 3 habanero chiles, seeded and minced
2 8oz. Cans of diced tomatoes with green chiles
1 bunch of green onions, 1 bunch of Italian parsley (chopped fine)
olive oil
salt, black pepper, ground cayenne pepper
white rice
1 six pack of cold beer

PREPARATION:
Season meat with salt black pepper and cayenne pepper and set aside
Coat bottom of pot with a few tablespoons olive oil. Sauté onions, peppers, over high heat, stirring frequently, until they are mostly clear and browning around edges. When the vegetables start to stick, pour some beer in and stir to deglaze. Repeat if they stick again before they are
sufficiently wilted. Remove vegetables and set aside. Drink remainder of beer and have another.

Add a few more tablespoons of oil to the pot and brown meat well on high heat When the meat is browned, add cooked vegetables and tomatoes. Stir pot, reduce heat to medium, and cover pot.

Have another beer.

Check often and add water as needed and reduce heat after meat starts to become tender.

Cook rice 20 minutes before serving.
At this time, add green onions and most of the parsley
And stir into gravy while rice is cooking.
Serve over rice.
Good side dishes are corn, field peas, black-eyes, greens.
Wash down with cold beer.

* – Chicken or pork may be substituted

So, get your dancing shoes on and come out for some really fast lindy or balboa, some slow blues, some Charleston, and swing of course.

Junior Mance @ the Blue Note in NYC

I had the great pleasure of venturing up to NYC Sunday to see Junior Mance at the Blue Note in Greenwich Village. He is one of the finest jazz pianists and one whose work I've come to admire.

http://www.juniormance.com/index.php

When I told him I was very much in love with his work and it was a pleasure to finally hear him play, his face lit up. He indulged me with a photo :) It was absolute heaven to hear him play "For Dancers Only" I LOVE his version of that song. Here are two clips from the performance:









I discovered that I loved Junior Mance when I heard his version of "For Dancers Only" What a fabulous Sunday afternoon...brunch, live jazz, NYC. What more could you ask for?

Solomon Douglas @ Glen Echo 7/7/2007

An encore of the Solomon Douglas Swingtet @ our dance back in July of 2007.

Cape May Jazz Festival

This past weekend we headed up to Cape May for their fall jazz festival. Amazing time! I loved dancing to Houston Pearson (I'm a sucker for sax). And Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers definitely tore it up. (I'm still second-lining.) But the highlight of the weekend was this man:


That's the amazing Ernie Andrews, with Rayned, Laurie Zimmerman from Philly, and me. We were fortunate enough to attend a rehearsal and his two evening sets. I loved his songs before, but I had no idea what a powerful entertainer he was until this weekend. He kept us laughing and crying all night long. Here's what we ate during the second set:


Pears, soaked in port, covered in chocolate, served on top of a raspberry sauce, a special gift for us from the kitchen. It was lovely with my coffee and cognac.